COME FLY WITH ME

[Music] Aha. Caught you peeking, didn't we? Well, we don't blame you a bit for that neat little yellow bird out there. Is one that brings a nostalgic gleam to anyone's eye. Yep, that's a Mustang. An F-51 Mustang. It used to be called a P-51 back in the 40s when it was writing aerial history as the greatest fighter plane of World War II. Of course, it's been refurbished and rebuilt at a new paint job. And it's now being used for something other than racking up kills over enemy aircraft. It's a pretty famous little bird. These days, it's gaining even more fame in demonstrations of its maneuverability and reliability at air shows throughout the country. When North American first built the plane for England, it was the rugged reliability, the easy maneuverability, and the great versatility of this little beauty that convinced America to put in a production order for the plane. Oh, I see you spotted the name in the plane, Bob Hoover. He used to be a test pilot, one of the best. Today, he's manager of customer relations for North American's Los Angeles division, and he's the man who demonstrates this plane. Well, here he comes now. You know, he flies this plane in a business suit and without a parachute. Hi, Bob. We've just been admiring this beauty of yours. Beauty she is, and she flies like a dream. I'm ready to go up on a practice flight now. Car to come along? Well, I'd love to, Bob, but I think all those folks out there would like to come, too. Have you got room for them? No, I haven't. However, if your friends out there don't mind using their imagination, perhaps we might arrange something. Tell you what, folks. Climb in with me now and let's see what we can do. Bob, if you don't mind, I'll stay down here and watch you. [Music] [Music] Sometimes when you're whirling and looping through the skies, it's difficult to identify what you are feeling with what you're doing. So, we'll show the complete maneuver through my eyes here on the ground. Then, we'll let Bob describe what he's doing as he does it. As you're taxiing out for takeoff, it might be well to advise you that immediately after takeoff, Bob will put you through two barrel rolls, his opening salute to whatever organization is sponsoring the shows he does throughout the United States. Down the runway he goes, and you're on your way. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Next maneuver is a four-point hesitation slow roll. And here's what you'll be doing. These maneuvers, incidentally, are basic ones that most fighter pilots learn. Hoover, a former fighter pilot himself, is one of the best. [Music] You'll notice that your hands, feet, and head are a little heavy at this point because we're pulling out of the dive. We're now rolling into the first point, hanging on our side. Here we are upside down, feeling the negative G, and once again hanging on the right side, then back straight and level. Ordinarily, Bob's next demonstration is an eightoint roll, but today he goes directly into a 16-point roll, the most difficult of the stop roll maneuvers. A number of pilots can do an eight-point. It takes an expert to stop 16 times in one roll. Once again, you feel the heaviness of your extremities from the acceleration as we dive in for the granddaddy of all precision maneuvers, the 16point roll. Count with me if you will. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and 8. Upside down. 9 10 11 and 12. 13 14 15 and 16 for right side up. Even kids like to hang upside down. That's what you're about to do. all the way down the runway at 350 mph. [Music] We're now diving in for the inverted pass. You'll notice as the airplane is rolled inverted. And here we go upside down now hanging on the belt with a bit of wing waggling while in the inverted position. This is my way of waving to the youngsters in the audience as we cross the airfield and back again. Right side up. [Music] Twist and turn and dive back in for a Cuban 8. A real ground whirler. [Music] pulling up now into the horizontal aid. This was formerly called a Cuban 8. It's been modified and therefore I use the term horizontally because it is a bit different. We've thrown in a vertical roll which you've just seen. Notice the sky whirling around. And as we pull over the top of the maneuver, you can now see the Earth below us rotating rather rapidly. We're diving back now towards the ground. Getting ready for our pull out in the other half of the maneuver. [Music] That was only half of the eight. Now you'll do it again from the opposite direction. [Music] [Music] The difficulty of this maneuver is that pilot intends to keep the maneuver close into the boundaries of the hill and as he pulls up above the horizon to the vertical attitude, it is impossible to determine any ground reference. So, a sense of timing and instinct permits a precise heading as you pull over the top of the maneuver and back down through the horizon and to the runway. Once again, at this part, it gives you a bit of a queasy feeling if you're inexperienced in this type of flying. Here we are diving back towards the ground again. And at this point and throughout the roll maneuvers, there are no instruments within the cockpit that tell the pilot at what point he should recover. You pay good money to loop the loop in amusement parks, but there isn't a park in the country that can give you a loop as big and as fast as the one you're about to experience. [Music] [Music] An air show would be incomplete without an age old loop maneuver. Here we are fully out of the dive, going across the ramp, and starting up into the maneuver. There's really no great difficulty in performing this maneuver other than trying to hold a heading as the airplane is maneuvered over the top away from the horizon. Pilot does have to worry about ground reference and then of course the concern about pull out. As you can see, his judgment has to be exercised precisely to avoid flying back into the ground upon recovery from the maneuver. As a native of Tennessee, it was only natural that Bob would call this sides slip landing maneuver the Tennessee walts. But don't try this on a dance floor. [Music] [Music] After touching down on one wheel and rolling a bit, Bob changes wheels and then settles down to a two- wheelel taxi into the hanger. Isn't it amazing that in this era of space flight, moonshots, and the farout technology of today, we're still interested and thrilled at the ultimate control of man over machined in an old F-51 Mustang. This is the type of flying that one doesn't see too often anymore. It's nostalgic and historic, and for my money, it's still mighty exciting. Well, I certainly hope you all enjoyed the flight. And if you hear about the 51 and me planning a demonstration in your area, I sure hope you'll get out to see us. Thanks a lot for letting me show off this great little airplane. We built many others, bigger and faster, and just as great. But I'm like you are. I've got a real soft spot in my heart for the good old Mustang. Thank you.